Many people who visit Madeira choose to base themselves in Funchal, the capital of the island, but we’re not city folks and prefer a quieter haven. So instead we opted to visit the city on a day trip, which began with a detour up to Pico do Arieiro which rises 1818m behind Funchal. 

We planned to capture the sunrise rising above a sea of clouds because the conditions were looking promising. It was 1000x busier than the previous place we watched the sunrise. The car park was packed out and queues of over 30 people were waiting at the various pay stations to buy a parking ticket. 

Most people were heading to a viewpoint near the main summit, but we opted for a much quieter, rocky mound that was a short walk from the car park and void of people – also void of any views as we were enshrouded by clouds. 

It’s always a risk heading up a summit for sunrise and it wasn’t looking like today was going to pay off. Occasionally the cloud would drift down, but we were about 100-200 meters too low. We decided to venture up to the man viewpoint afterwards where hundreds of tourists were starting to descend on the ridge-line hike. Small piles of snow were piled up from some freak weather the day before. We got a brief glimpse of the mountains rising above the clouds but it was a blink and you’ll miss it moment before we were enshrouded in dense fog again. 

Never mind, we continued our day’s explorations by taking an extremely scenic road across to Nuns Valley. We stopped often to photograph the beautiful scenes and steep-sided valley which was reminiscent of Hawaii. 

When we reached the main viewpoint, the tranquillity faded as a couple of tour buses dropped off hordes of cruise ship guests. But – the view was indeed very beautiful. The weather was a tad moody, creating rainbows that shone down onto the villages sitting hundreds of meters below us, as if they were a magical pot of gold. 

Now it was time to make our way towards Funchal, with a little stop in Monte to see the famous Carreiros do Monte which are toboggan sledges, dating back to the 19th century. They were traditionally used to get people and produce down the steep mountain roads to the capital. Nowadays, it’s just a fun thing for tourists to do. 

Two men wearing white uniforms and straw hats kick the sledges downhill, gaining momentum and speeds of up to 30kmph. It was a fairly narrow road which we expected to be specifically for the toboggans, but it was fully open to traffic – including rubbish trucks that spilt a load of dirty water on the road as they turned a bend. This resulted in a lot of confusion by the Carreiros, who immediately put the brakes on using their thick rubber boots to steer and halt the sledge. The ride is only short, so at €30, we opted to just watch from the sidelines.

We did the final drive downhill into Funchal where we parked up and wandered down the narrow lanes that led us to the sea. A fort sat on the shoreline, painted mustard yellow and weathered by the elements. From the top floor, we had a nice view of the city climbing up the lush green slopes towards the jagged mountains. 

There was a long, narrow lane that led parallel to the sea and was lined with little eateries that spilt out onto the footpath. Many of the doors and walls had colourful murals painted on them which added a lovely pop of colour. 

Nearby was the popular market which was full of tropical fruit, vegetables, exotic plants and fish. It was a fun little spot to wander around but the fruit stalls really caught my eye. 

I fancied a passion fruit so we grabbed a couple and asked the price. The man put them on his scales, tapped his calculator and showed us ‘7’ on the screen. €7 for two passion fruits! My jaw dropped to the floor, and I mumbled to Craig “Let’s just buy one” Craig didn’t want to look stingy, so he unintentionally played into the shop seller’s hand, saying “We’ll take both!” Damn, it was the most expensive fruit we’d ever bought. I’m glad we waited until we got back to our accommodation to eat them, because they were so unbelievably tart, it felt like I was in a sour-sweet eating competition. But, with a good dollop of sugar, they were absolutely delicious – maybe not €7 delicious mind you. 

The city became more commercialised beyond the market, but we came across a cute little coffee shop specialising in Portugal’s famous ‘Pastel de Nata’ a delicious custard tart. For just €1.50 we got a tart with a coffee – What a bargain. 

We popped into a few arty shops, and a tinned sardine store which was an art store in itself. The packaging was fabulous, with bright colours and funky designs. But the prices were insane, with some tins fetching €40! It seemed like a weird marketing idea, regardless of my not eating fish – I would much rather a useable tin with a funky design instead of one filled with sardines. It would have made a really cute souvenir or gift for someone, but as soon as you peel open the lid to eat them, the art piece is destroyed. 

We only spent around an hour in Funchal before we hopped on board a whale watching boat. It was only €30 per person for a three-hour trip, but it was probably our least favourite whale watching trip that we’ve been on. 

The boat was large but almost every seat was taken. We were on the top floor at the front of the boat, which turned out to be a great location at least. 

It was lovely and warm in Funchal before we boarded the boat, but clouds began to build up and block the sun. Along with a cool sea breeze, we were uncomfortably cold and regretted not taking our puffer jackets along. 

The boat headed out towards the open sea to begin with, which gave us a great opportunity to see Madeira from a different angle and grasp how steep and mountainous the island was. The jagged peaks had low-lying clouds drifting around them, and steep green slopes were dotted with little communities. 

January wasn’t the best time of year for whales in Madeira, but even still we came across a pod of about 30 pilot whales. It was our first time seeing these smaller whales, who all seemed to be in chill mode, resting on the surface. There were also bottlenose dolphins mingling with the pod, and they seemed to be more active with some tail slapping. 

I was enjoying observing the animals but eventually the captain pulled away and continued the trip along the southern coast. We got some great views of some of Europe’s highest cliffs, with houses perched on the edge, somehow defying gravity and potential rock slides. 

The route back was rather boring as they made no effort to see more dolphins or whales, it seemed like they just had to tick the box and then it was a painfully slow sightseeing tour. It was a pretty strange whale watching trip in that sense, and unlike any others we’ve done before. I suppose on a warmer day the dragged-out trip wouldn’t have been so bad. It was still interesting to see the island from the sea, and witness some cetaceans along the way though – and I suppose it was still cheaper than a tin of sardines from that fancy shop.